The Wong lab has developed 3D-printed biomaterials that degrade on demand. Their article in Lab on a Chip demonstrates that alginate can be patterned with a technique called stereolithography, and these patterns can be degraded by manipulating the ions present in solution. BME graduate student Thomas Valentin was the lead author on the study entitled, Stereolithographic printing of ionically-crosslinked alginate hydrogels for degradable biomaterials and microfluidics. BME alumni Jaskitanjeet (Jessica) Sodhi (ScM '17) and Hayley McClintock (ScB '16) were also authors on the paper.

The day before fall semester courses began, our 76 Biomedical Engineering graduate students and 57 Biotechnology graduate students gathered in Alumni Hall for our annual retreat. Students were introduced to research highlights by faculty mentors, introduced to Providence and Brown campus by gBMES, and presented research posters to their peers. Awards were given for the best research posters in the categories of Mechanobiology: Mark Scimone (Franck Lab), Regenerative Engineering: Elizabeth Leary (Morgan Lab), Neuroengineering: Jihun Lee (Nurmikko Lab), General BME/Biotechnology: Megan Dempsey (Darling Lab), and Rookie Researcher: Travis Wallace (Coulombe Lab).

"When I was an undergraduate, I thought I wanted to be a nurse, but at a public library, I came across the book The Transformed Cell by Stephen Rosenberg. It was a story filled with the trials and tribulations to generate one vial of interleukin-2. I was so amazed by his seemingly insurmountable goal, but the scope and the impact made it seem worth it to me. I look where he is now, but when he started people didn’t believe him. He believed it and persevered through giving up a lot of things to be a pioneer in immunotherapy."

"I’m lucky on a very small level because in the process of differentiation of the stem cells I get to see the sheets of cells start to beat spontaneously. Every few weeks I get to see this minor success which is a visual representation of things working, which helps to keep me motivated."

"As a research scientist, I work in a group to address different scientific questions in relation to a drug target. This involves identifying the right experimental models, designing and running experiments, and finally analyzing and reporting the data. A typical day would include doing hands-on work in the lab, documenting work in an electronic notebook, attending meetings and various administrative tasks. The rewarding parts of the job are when we reach a project milestone and knowing that our efforts made a positive impact in advancing a drug program."

Researchers in the Borton lab have developed a home environment for nonhuman primates using primarily non-conductive materials to overcome hindered wireless data transmission in standard primate housing.